A landfill in Indonesia is still burning more than a week after it caught fire, producing thick, toxic fumes that have sickened and displaced nearby residents, and highlighting the country’s longstanding challenges with waste management.
The fire at the Jatiwaringin landfill — in Tangerang Regency, west of the capital, Jakarta — started on June 30, prompting the local authorities to declare a state of emergency. By Tuesday, the blaze had burned nearly half the dump, which is equivalent in land area to about 60 American football fields, according to the Indonesian National Police.
The noxious smoke caused 192 residents to evacuate nearby areas, the police said in a statement on Thursday. As of Sunday, 72 people had been treated for acute respiratory infections, said Maesyal Rasyid, the regent of Tangerang. Health officials warned residents of the risks of exposure to the fumes and urged them to wear masks outdoors.
Indonesian officials said this week that the fire was close to being extinguished. Lawmakers and environmental activists have said the blaze was an indication of the country’s continuing waste crisis: Indonesia has struggled to curb open dumping, a practice that leaves trash susceptible to catching fire and spreading toxic materials.
The Jatiwarigin landfill is filled with trash from the suburbs west of Jakarta, one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world. It receives nearly 3,000 tons of waste each day, or more than 1 million tons every year, according to Indonesian officials. Some of the piles of trash at the site had reached the height of a seven-story building, according to Andra Soni, the governor of Banten, the province where Tangerang is located.
Firefighting efforts had been hindered by the amount of combustible materials in the landfill and the sheer height of the piled trash, as well as heat and strong winds during the current dry season, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Firefighters have struggled to reach embers deep inside the piles, even as they used helicopters, fire engines and bulldozers to extinguish blazes on the surface.
Rizal Irawan, an official at Indonesia’s environment ministry, said an investigation into the cause of the fire would begin once firefighting efforts were complete.
About 60 percent of waste produced in Indonesia was managed improperly, the ministry said last year. Although Indonesia passed a law in 2008 mandating the closure of all open-air landfills, the country has struggled to enforce the ban.
There has been a lack of education about proper trash sorting and supporting facilities like waste disposal sites, said Muhammad Aminullah, the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, an activist group in Jakarta.
“This is not an unexpected event, but the consequence of improper waste management,” Wahyu Eka Setyawan, an activist with the group, said of the Jatiwaringin blaze.
Last year, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, Indonesia’s environment minister at the time, issued a sharp warning to landfill operators in the greater Jakarta area to stop open dumping, including at Jatiwaringin. He said he had been angered after seeing a fire while touring the site in October.
Lawmakers have also scrutinized Indonesia’s waste disposal system after the most recent fire. Indonesia’s coordinating minister for food, Zulkifli Hasan, said on Monday that Indonesia would aim to end open dumping by 2028.
Ateng Sutisna, a member of the House of Representatives, urged officials last week to conduct fire risk audits on all landfills and transition to better landfill systems.
“If waste is allowed to accumulate without proper management and an early detection system,” he said, “we are nurturing the potential for disaster.”
